WA WA - Leah Roberts, 23, Whatcom Co, 13 Mar 2000

[HollywoodBound]

Canyon Creek Road is north off of the Mt. Baker Highway, and is partially paved for the first 4-5 miles then it turns to gravel. Most of the road is one lane with turnouts for cars to pass going opposite directions. I don't see Leah finding the Canyon Creek RD at night because the Mt Baker Highway is a very dark highway without any street lamps, and the CCRd isn't well marked. There is a bar called the Frosty Inn on the MBH not far from the CCRd cutoff. I wonder if that was the bar?

They found the car on March 18th which is 5 days after she last uses her debit card on March 13th. On the audreymayherron link http://audreymayherron.expage.com/id46.html
it says under the pictures of CCRd that it was not light and raining when Leah traveled the road. I don't know how they know that, it seems like something they couldn't know by just finding the car with no one in it. Any ideas?

In one of the articles it said the windshield was smashed and they did luminol tests on the glass because there was no blood visible and that tested for traces of blood and there was none. Also they added that if anyone was in the car they did not hit glass or the steering wheel or do any damage to the drivers seat.

I know I wrote earlier it sounded like she was in the car alone when it went off the embankment but now I think it sounds more like the car started rolling from the top of a hill on the road and then went over the embankment with no one in it. If there is no hill where the accident happened then I don't think this could be due to the speed they think she was traveling. It's hard to tell from the pictures if there is a hill right there or not. Also it said on the link above that debris from the accident still sits there, wonder if it's just they never quite picked it all up or they left it for a reason?

 

[reb]

WOW-- i didn't even think of that... that puts a whole new spin on things. so somehow she got separated from her car, either at that spot or somewhere else... and someone either pushed her car over the embankment after they abducted her... or drove it up there themselves and did that.

i would like to know if investigators or the family had a mechanic had look at the car to determine whether she had car trouble. it's possible that she was in her car by the side of the road, and someone asked if she needed help & picked her up. then they came back and pushed her car over the edge.

i would also like to know more about that guy she was seen in the bar with. was either of them drunk? was this guy a regular, or was he ever seen there again?
you know... if police contacted me about being the last person to speak to a missing individual,, i would like to think i would do everything i could to help them out.
just the fact that this guy immediately hired a lawyer either tells me that he's got a guilty conscience... ot he's just extremely selfish. why else would someone do that? is it really that dangerous to talk to police, if you haven't done anything wrong???

another thing that might be good to know... did leah smoke pot, or was she involved in drugs in any way? this would obviously make her more suseptible to running into trouble.

 

[HollywoodBound]

I read nothing about how much she had to drink. I think if the car was pushed it was by Leah only because it sounds like someone had to go out of their way to put not 1 but 2 articles of clothing out by the road. I just can't imagine an abductor doing that. I do wonder if she met up with someone bad but I'm not sure they had anything to do with her car's accident. It would be a very sad coincidence if she staged the accident to get away from life for a while and then ran into an abductor who took her.

The description of the mountain search said a lot was done by air. If she's intentionally hiding an air search wouldn't help I don't think. I think that a plane search would be more for a lost hiker willing to get some kind of signal to the plane to say I'm down here.

I also don't know if the bar guy was a regular but they were able to find him for questioning so someone must of known him or he came forward.

Whitewolf, if you don't mind, can you describe the Mount Baker Highway a little. I know you said it's dark but is it still fairly heavily traveled? I'm wondering why no witnesses saw a woman walking if she indeed went up the embankment and made it to MBhwy. Maybe it's so rarely traveled she could walk along it and never be passed by a car?

 

[reb]

i just read the whole article about the CUE group including leah's siblings.. what an amazing thing they did!

why would she bring her mother's engagement ring?
some ideas:
she wanted something to feel close to her mother (being on a spiritual journey or crisis):
she knew she might not return or wanted to disappear & wanted to take it with her
she had it in case she became financially strapped & needed to pawn it
she had met someone (online?) & went out there to possibly get married (probably a long shot).

and why bring her passport, unless she was thinking about going to canada?
there's also something odd about the fact that she told no one about her trip.... she left the note to her roommate in her room, instead of the kitchen or someplace where it would be found immediately. it was if she wanted to get far before anyone would notice she was gone- and she seems to have achieved that. (but why would her roommate not step into her room to see if anything was amiss BEFORE the MP report was filed? it says the note was found the day after they filed the report. strange.......!!)

other questions:

(looking at the powerpoint files
why did it take 12 days from the time her jeep was found, until the time they discovered her credit card, lisence, & cash inside......???

what do her college friends think about her state of mind before she dropped out of school & left-- was she under stress? having a crisis? it's a fairly drastic thing to drop out of college altogether when you are doing well in your classes (assuming she was?).

back to the car rolling end-over-end down the hill, the windows being smashed, the lack of blood or any evidence that she was hurt... it's still possible she was in the jeep when it rolled. with her seatbelt on, she could have been held against the seat from centrifugal force, and maybe some other objects smashed against the windshield.

 

[reb]

it says her car was off an abandoned logging road. makes you wonder what kind of creeps frequent those roads.. and why? what are they up to... trolling for lost victims?

i wonder also if her being a vegetarian had anything to do with her odd state of mind, or her running off the road. when i was a vegeatrian i became so anemic (even though i was eating everything you are supposed to, on that type of diet!) that i was almost blacking out. my red blood cell count was almost off the chart. i was dealing with extreme exhaustion, light-headedness.. and you know, part of that "spiritual" feeling of lightness that many vegeatarians claim to feel actually comes from lack of oxygen to the brain (and body). and it's very difficult to think clearly... much less do anything else!
now that i'm not one anymore, i can see others who do follow that type of diet are often this way. (not all, so don't get offended, folks!) but the truth is that many are. i travelled cross-country with 2 vegetarians on different trips, and they would fall asleep at the drop of a hat (not while driving thank god!). they were always hungry, easily fatigued and very out-of-it... a perfect example of what i'm talking about.

now in the photos leahs certainly does look healthy enough, so maybe she was fine. but i hope her siblings checked any doctor's records of hers prior to her trip. did she have her blood tested recently, and if so, was she anemic? or were there any other imbalances that showed up?

once again, i wonder if she stopped to eat? strange that there is a record for her gas purchases but none for food... and that was a LOT of driving she did in only a few days. most people get hungry twice a day, if not 3 times or more! this makes me wonder if she was fasting...?? sometimes people do that when they are on a self-reflective journey. (or, a manic/euphoric state). this could have contributed to her state of mind.. confusion, or fatigue, etc.

 

[HollywoodBound]

When the joggers looked down they saw the car with the contents checkbook etc outside the vehicle so it could just be that 12 days later it was actually released to the public. I see what you're saying though, they made it sound like they could not walk around the car without stepping on the stuff yet they didn't find it for 12 days.

I wonder if the laptop left behind that was to be given to a friend had any evidence?

Sounded like the opposite of stress sitting in a coffee house writing and reading but I think she was deeply pondering things about life which could be extremely stressful.

I think in that article about the car it was implying that if the seat belt was on the seat would have taken a huge amount of force and it didn't appear to. If the seatbelt is not on then she would have hit the glass. I think even with the seatbelt on the splash of glass that occured would be enough for at least some to be on the luminol test but I don't know?

I wonder if the clothing out by the road had something to do with the contents of the jeep, especially her mother's ring, and she wanted it to be found not sit there for months or even years.

 

[reb]

yet another thought- she could have pulled over to the side of the road to sleep in the back seat.. thinking she was in the middle of nowhere & no one would see her... kind of like camping. and some creep came across her, took her, pushed the jeep... or maybe she just didn't have the emergency brake on, and the car rolled forward, and tumbled (& since she was in the back seat, she didn't hit the windshield. OK, wait a minute.. if she went off the side- for whatever reason, then she would have to be facing the edge (not parallel to the edge).. so... the place where the car went over would have to come after a curve in the road......... right?

also she could have been disoriented in the dark and tried to make a U-turn, overshot herself & went over the edge.

 

[HollywoodBound]

She ate at the mall where she saw the movie on the 13th. I'm not sure about other times and it could be she paid cash for food which is why it's not documented like the gas.

I still want to know how they know she traveled the road at night? They knew it was night and it was raining and I can't seem to connect how they connected that.

They list a bunch of items in the car or around it but I don't see any mention of the items they believe she had with her like things missing from her NC home that are not in or around the car like:
The journal she writes in at the coffee house
Pictures of family/friends
Other sentimental items like gifts
Did she leave the cat carrier in the car or was it taken.

I actually didn't read she had a carrier at all-I'm just assuming.
Wonder if she really left the accident scene with just the cat.

Another question, she stayed in a hotel for like 18 hours did she mingle with people or go right to her room and then checkout. Wonder what her demeaner was like (other than tired) when she checked in.

 

[HollywoodBound]

A couple other things LE might know that would be interesting:

Leah smoked but they didn't say how much. At any of the gas stations or anywhere else did she stock up on cigarettes if so were they in the car or taken? If she was planning on traveling on foot I can't imagine a smoker not wanting enough for the trip.

Also I wonder if she took the keys to the car, I don't see that mentioned anywhere. Did anyone read anything about the keys? Missing persons cases usually say the car was found locked with no keys or keys on the floor etc. If the window is smashed and a lot of her stuff is outside there's really no point in locking the car wonder if she did anyway and took the keys with her. Or left them in the ingnition. Or were they still in the on position in the ignition but the crash knocked the engine out.

 

[WhiteWolf]

Mt. Baker Highway is two-laned and pretty well traveled year around, especially during ski and camping seasons. A lot of the logging roads off the MBH are used by site-seers, hunters, 4 wheelers, ATV's, snowmobilers, hikers and campers. There are year around houses, farms, ranches, resorts, campgrounds, cabins, rv lots, etc., along the MBH.

When we have camped on the CCR we have always seen some traffic, especially on the weekends. If Leah made it back up the embankment on the CCR, and if she had stayed by the side of the road because of injury, someone would have come by within a few hours. It also wasn't clear to me if she went off the road going up or coming down. I did recognize the area with the cement barriers on the hillside, and that would be on the passenger side going up the hill. Don't forget, the road climbs constantly to the top, and it's fairly narrow (mostly one lane with turnouts) with a lot of curves.

I don't know how they figured it wasn't light and raining when she went off the road unless the jogger went jogging up there every day at the same time, and he/she/they didn't see Leah's car the morning or early afternoon the day before while they were jogging.

 

[WhiteWolf]

I just thought of something after I posted about it being dark and raining when Leah went off the road. Duh, this is Washington, and maybe it had been raining on and off for the days she was last seen and her car found. Also, maybe her wipers and headlights were still turned on? Fog would be another reason for her lights to be on even if it wasn't dark yet.

 

[HollywoodBound]

Thanks for the info WW. I took the 'not light' comment on the site to mean that it was nightime or late evening not that the rain and clouds made it dark. That' very possible though. I forgot how much rain WA gets.

I was trying to do a little survey for the sex offenders in the area where the car was found. I went familywatchdog.us and put in Bellingham and mount baker highway and it could not locate MBhwy in Bellingham. Does this area have another town name? I also used mapquest and found a town name Kendall with a Canyon Creek Road but the watch dog site could not find Kendall as even being a town.

That Frosty bar you mentioned could be where she went, it's an Inn and she was tired, maybe she was thinking of staying there but ended up just going to the bar and met someone.

If LE knows it was dark and raining when she crashed they probably know the day it happened which is important because if they don't know for sure and just made a guess who's to say she didn't go to the bar/Inn after the accident.

 

[WhiteWolf]

Thanks for the info WW. I took the 'not light' comment on the site to mean that it was nightime or late evening not that the rain and clouds made it dark. That' very possible though. I forgot how much rain WA gets.

I was trying to do a little survey for the sex offenders in the area where the car was found. I went familywatchdog.us and put in Bellingham and mount baker highway and it could not locate MBhwy in Bellingham. Does this area have another town name? I also used mapquest and found a town name Kendall with a Canyon Creek Road but the watch dog site could not find Kendall as even being a town.

That Frosty bar you mentioned could be where she went, it's an Inn and she was tired, maybe she was thinking of staying there but ended up just going to the bar and met someone.

If LE knows it was dark and raining when she crashed they probably know the day it happened which is important because if they don't know for sure and just made a guess who's to say she didn't go to the bar/Inn after the accident.

Bellingham is where the county seat is located and they list their sex offenders separate from the rest of Whatcom County. Kendall, Maple Falls, Deming, and Glacier may be listed just under Whatcom County.

The Frosty Inn is a bar and restaurant in Glacier right on the MBH. There is a hotel/motel not far from there, though. I'm wondering if she was sleeping in the Jeep part of the time since there were sheets or blankets put on the broken windows of the Jeep.

I know I wouldn't have wanted to be out there on the highway alone. Not that it's usually unsafe, but it is out in the boonies, and a lot of people who live so far from town do so for a reason. We always bring a shotgun and pistol along when we go camping up there. On some of the logging roads, if you walk off the road, it's not unusual to find some half- shelter built by someone living in the woods. It gives me the creeps to find them when we've been hunting because they look lived in, but you never see the occupants.

 

[reb]

that is creepy. i wish LE would be more aggressive with those who just 'set up camp' permanently in the woods (everywhere). i know sometimes they are just drunks or bums or many are criminals- or at least creepy weirdos. people should be able to go to wooded areas without having to worry about murderers lurking about. if someone wants to be homeless, there are plenty of shelters where they can go & get help. i wish i could 'live & let live'.. but, sorry- there are just too many evil people out there these days.

 

[HollywoodBound]

I agree. Coming across man made shacks must be scary when hiking. I'd tip toe the other way hoping not to see anyone.

I did find out her car keys were still in the ignition. Also, I thought she told no one she was taking this trip but it turns out she told her guitar teacher she was going out west for a while but would return. Most music teachers I think would ask where are you going and when are you coming back. Wonder how this whole conversation went. Why tell the guitar teacher and no one else? Maybe so she wouldn't have tons of appointments that she couldn't show for, that's all I can think of.

So, are you all leaning toward an abductor took Leah after her car went off the embankment, or that she acted alone and created an accident scene and then disappeared? My feeling is that she did the accident part all on her own and then left the scene to explore. Maybe later hooked up with some new friends (or bad people) but I'm not sure.
She left NC leaving behind valuable things (laptop) and made people worry by not saying she was going and leaving the note in her own room. When she got to WA she did the same thing, left valuables behind ($, ring etc) and again made people worry.

I know she was probably not thinking clearly but why would she be so elusive and not just say I'm taking a trip for weeks or months so don't worry? Sadly, it almost seems like she wanted the search for her and wanted people to worry. And at the accident scene why drape clothes at the road so people find the car but no sign Leah or the cat, more searching and more worrying.

 

[reb]

i just have a hard time believeing a 23- yr old would want to disappear voluntarily.. she had good relationships with her siblongs, no drug problem (that we know of), no debts (drugs or otherwise), was well-liked by friends, not in an abusive relationship, no reason to run from the law or want to change her identity. she just seemed to be soul-searching. besides, wouldn't she just cross the border to canada if she wanted to run away? she had her passport so she could do that, why leave it behind in your car? and why leave your car in the first place? it seems that she'd just drive the car to wherever she was going, because she'd need it!

after rolling this around in my head over & over, i would say my best guess is:

she may or may nor have been going through some type of mild breakdown or had some stress-induced emotional condition, that caused her to have to get away abruptly and not tell anyone what she was doing. so from the beginning she wasn't thinking exactly clearly. after arriving in WA, she was trying to find the "beatnik" mountain... drove up there.. perhaps had some crazy idea of going up there close to nighttime to look at the stars, sleep in her car... have total solitude. and from either daydreaming/not paying attention, not being sure of the route, not enough light, going too fast, the rain/fog, maybe even being tipsy (if she'd just left the bar)... she skidded off the embankment. she hit her head & had a concussion (not enough of an injury to draw blood).. and spent the night in the car, putting the sheets over the broken windows to keep out the cold. then in the morning she was scared, disoriented, maybe in pain.. and she climbed up & started walking. the reason she left her keys in the ignition & other valuables behind was because she wasn't thinking clearly. (or, she got abducted before she could grab them). and then she met up with the wrong person at the right time... someone who offered to give her a ride back down so she could go to the emergency room.

acatually.. this makes me wonder if her siblings checked emergency room records, in case she did make it back into town.........???

to me, this seems like the most likely scenario (and i know it's already been thought of). thoughts??

 

[HollywoodBound]

I hope they checked the ER too. Though she had no ID to give them so she could have said any name.

I think you're feeling is possible though to me that would mean she disappeared on her own from NC and then disappeared by amnesia or an abductor days later. Just seems unlikely to me. Also, LE said there is no evidence anyone was in the car when it crashed and I think that if someone were in the car there must be at least some evidence. The car was found upright but it had flipped end over end so that was quite a brutal accident, and not just the windshield was broken, they said several windows were broken too. That's a lot of glass, sharp cracked glass.

I think more can be drawn from her note too. In the note she never said she was leaving only 'this is to cover bills for while I am gone' and never exactly said she is returning only 'see you soon'. Seems to show uncertainty. And again why write the year on a note to a roommate? When I lived on campus in college we wrote notes to eachother all the time if one of us were leaving to go somewhere and no one was around to tell. If my roommate ever put the year on a note I'd say to myself- why the heck does she think I don't know what year it is---how strange.

I thought when I read the powerpoint timeline that more could be drawn from her credit card use too. She left on March 9th and right away checks into a hotel on the 10th. Then she makes it all the way to WA without checking into another hotel ever again. I was trying figure out why she would not also stay in a hotel in WA since she's there on the 13th and driving around and hadn't used her card to stay in one for days. Leah's sister can track her charges, and on the 10th Leah's not even missing a whole day (I think she checks in at 8AM), her sister had no reason to check right away because there is no extreme cause for alarm if she's not even missing 24 hours. If Leah stays in a hotel in WA by the time she wakes up the next morning her sister could very well be knocking on her door because she's being filed as a MP and everyone's worried, so she would hop a flight to talk to Leah.
On the 13th Leah's alone on the gas station camera and seen alone other places but she's not doing anything that could result in her family being able to walk right up to her. The point I'm trying to make is she appears to be hiding from her family and friends (or at least not wanting to be found) even before her car is crashed.

 

[reb]

but-- what reason did she have to disappear & hide from her family?? by all accounts she was close to her siblings, on good terms with them & her friends also. that just doesn't add up to me. and she always made a point to tell her sister not to worry about her.

the note was strange though.. kind of cryptic & sad, but also very light-hearted and carefree.. if she was distressed she was certainly hiding it well... and maybe she was hiding her feelings because she didn't like people worrying. someone must have been concerned (the roommate?), due to the "suicidal" comment.

the fact that she rushed across the country so fast is puzzling too. usually when you go on a road trip, you want to take time to enjoy the ride a bit! maybe she just wanted to get to a place that was spiritually meaningful to her, as fast as possible. maybe there was an event (band??) she wanted to see, and she was trying to get there by a certain date. or maybe she was just trying to save money.

as for the way the car was found, i still think it's possible that someone can flip their car and come out relatively unscathed.. it does happen sometimes. or, like i said earlier, maybe she was just stopped by the side of the road, and someone came up on her car & took her by surprise. (then later, pushed the car off). or she had car trouble & they offered to take her into town. here's yet another possiblity-- someone posing as a cop. i wonder if there's been any other reports in WA of men approaching women like this around that time, and if LE has looked into this?

i wish her siblings knew about this thread, it would be interesting to see what they have to say,, although it might be painful... since they've spent so much time & effort trying to figure it out for the past 6 years.

 

[HollywoodBound]

but-- what reason did she have to disappear & hide from her family??

the fact that she rushed across the country so fast is puzzling too.

I don't know the reason I think only she knows. I think the rushing shows that at that time she didn't have a huge interest in seeing the places she crossed to get to WA. Kind of like her heart was already set on getting to her destination.

I wonder what experts would say about the note. Do suicidal people usually claim they are not suicidal and want to live or do they usually admit it when they are writing a note that they are leaving?

If someone other than Leah pushed the car I can't think of why the clothing would be out at the road? Also, why throw the contents of the car outside of it? It's a Jeep Cherokee, so it seems like plenty of room.

I also can't understand how she had a bump to the head (or other injury) that caused her not to take the engagement ring and $2000+ yet she knows to cover the windows and drape clothes so the car is found, and take the cat. To make things more mysterious items were picked up and thrown out of the car. I guess they could have been ejected as the accident happened but I don't know.

Back to the note. I had looked up and Easter was on April 23rd in 2000 but why is that off to the side with writing that does not concern Easter. I wonder if the date meant something else.

 

[Animal04216]

I copied the discussion and theories posts to missing/located discussion forum--thread is named the same as here.